The rest of them were fair game.
Even her other elder cousin, Captain Arran McQuoid, who’d been married to the seas for years, recently found himself swept into a whirlwind romance with a lovely, local—and to the family’s secret happiness, Scottish—innkeeper.
Obviously, a McQuoid falling for a woman innkeeper continued the lore and legend and was met with approval for it.
And then there was Meghan’s exquisitely beautiful, clever-witted sister.
Linnie.
Unlike all the other McQuoids who captured the hearts of their true love, Linnie caught two.
That of Captain Jeremy Tremaine, whom Linnie ultimately chose for her husband. (For reasons Meghan would never understand.)
And Lord August Archdale, the Earl of Culross.
Linnie rejected Lord Culross—but before that, she’d entertained his suit. Well, in a half-hearted way.
Most of their outings ended with Meghan being forced to distract the gentleman while Linnie slipped off with Captain Tremaine.
At first, Meghan bristled at her sister’s capriciousness.
But Meghan’s irritation swiftly gave way to something else entirely—gratitude. For born of Linnie’s deceit, Meghan gained something unexpected in the Earl of Culross: a companion. A confidant. A friend who tromped through the snow at her side and traded barbs as easily as laughter.
Meghan had no moral superiority over Linnie. For so many reasons.
Somewhere between Meghan’s snow-laden walks with her sister’s sweetheart and all the easy banter with him, Meghan fell.
Hard.
The Earl of Culross became “just August.”
And naturally giventhatinsistence, she’d likewise become “just Meghan.”
Then Linnie chose Captain Tremaine.
Meghan, ever possessed of the steadfast McQuoid belief in happily-ever-afters, decided her sister’s choice meant something. Linnie’s marriage freed August from the arrangement he had once sought with her family. Surely, if he had been destined for one McQuoid sister, it was only because he had not yet realized he loved the other?
She waited breathlessly in the wings.
Of course, he had once been intended for another. That was how these stories began. But he would fall in love with Meghan. No, hehadfallen in love with her. And theirs would not be a calculated alliance, but an all-consuming love match.
It was, after all, the most logical next chapter in a McQuoid love story.
Instead,he’d chased Linnie across the high seas to fight for her heart.
Naturally, Linnie chose her husband and heart.
And Meghan and August, friends and partners at McQuoid-Smith family functions, became…nothing.
Worse.
They’d becomelessthan nothing.
That realization broke Meghan’s heart and, in her moments of weakness, led her to make a decision she oughtn’t to have made.
Which brought Meghan to this very spot—a black square of the harlequined tile floor in the middle of Lord and Lady Rutland’s soaring, statuary marble grand entrance foyer. Her entry had been assured, on account of the invitation she’d secreted some weeks back from her sister.
Foremostly, Linnie hadn’t intended to go anyway. As a new mother to twin babes, Meghan’s sister hardly left her young family’s side.
